After approximately 20 years of using anabolic steroids, today I am considering stopping, and I will explain to you in this video what motivated me to do all this. When we think about being unnatural, or thinking about a guy who is not natural, a girl who is not natural, we are saying that this person uses hormones, uses other substances. So, it is a substance, a medicine that is placed in the body and has effects, and pharmacokinetics is very categorical in making it clear to us that every medicine brings you a desired effect and a side effect.
If you are going to do a cycle and use it, know that there will be side effects. I'm going to talk about dipyrone, novalgin, and dipyrone sodium brings relief from headaches, relief from muscle pain, but it also brings lethargy, for some people it makes them sleepy. It has the effect of the medicine, and the side effect.
With these medications, anabolic steroids and such, it would be no different. So, we have a first step there. The side effects.
Today, I use a small dose of testosterone, even a dose of TRT. Wow, in the past, when I competed, I used high doses - compared to my doses today. - Bomb!
And I've always been a bit of an asshole, I've always been in that "let's use less" mindset, and I saw friends who used like 3 times, 4 times what I used, and I thought that was a bit crazy, but each one, each one. Today, I use a calm dose of testosterone, a testosterone replacement. And that in itself already creates some changes in my physiology, it's impossible not to change.
And I remember Twin saying that when you use it, you pay for the aesthetics - with your health. - Stay natty, kids! Lalá athlete: I love bodybuilding, but I started to realize that it started to cost me a lot.
In aspects, for example, psychological, body in the non-aesthetic sense, there was a time when I had difficulty putting on socks. Why was it too big? It's old.
It didn't arrive. Difficulty climbing stairs, I was panting, I couldn't stand for long, joints hurt. At that time, my concern was the championship, the trophy.
I put it in capital letters so much that I didn't care about other things. I practically didn't even see it, my attention was so focused on it. - Laércio Refundini!
- As time went by, I started to realize what this was costing me, and it started to weigh on me a lot, you know? Imagine that here is the championship at the beginning, and here is, let's say, the cost of it all. The parade started to do that, and it came to a point where it was even here, and so on, and I started to swing, I started to take my foot off, compete less, and there was a time when it did that.
So I said, "I'm going to stop," because it clearly had a huge influence. I clearly remember that when I said I was going to compete, my ex-wife at the time no longer liked it. Today, I understand, I was possibly boring as hell.
- Does it get boring because of use? - Possibly. And I also realized that, I was personal, and when I started some preparation, I lost students.
And then the competition would take place, and so on, it would be good, and it would bring back students. You see, people were moving away. So, this started to have a big impact on my life, and then I decided "Bro, I'm not going to compete anymore.
" "I'll stay cool here. " And then I came to this maintenance stop here, and look, the last preparation I was considering going to, I talked to some people close to me, to get their opinion, and the person who told me what I needed to make the decision not to go , was my operations manager, who is a great friend, a brother. Love him.
I love you brother. And he said: "Monster. .
. when are you going to prepare, when are you going to compete, we can't count on you. " Man, imagine hearing that, knowing that we are structuring a lot of operations, a lot of projects that need me.
And here, I said "I won't," because the cost of this will be very high. And then we come to this moment of mine, using a testo and you will understand why at that moment I have not decided that It would be natural, we'll get there, and then I stayed at testo. Testing it there, as a replacement.
Bro, I use what old people use. Old people aged 50, 60 who go to the doctor for replacement, the same thing I do. I called myself old on that one.
- AND! - Why do I consider stopping today? When we talk about BMI, which is the Body Mass Index, we will see an index that will tell us if you are thin, if you are on weight, if you are overweight.
For a long time, it was argued that BMI works for sedentary people. A person who trains, of course, will have a greater volume of muscle mass and this will impact their BMI. Today, I measure 1.
80m and weigh around 104kg. I already weighed 120kg, old man. Ranizito, put your BMI into your BMI: 1.
80m and 104kg. - It was grade 1 obesity. - You see, grade 1 obesity.
- Below that, which is - Below that is overweight. Overweight. Underweight?
- Normal weight. You see, there's "normal weight", there's "overweight", and I'm "grade 1 obesity. " And what's the issue?
Until then, "Oh, it's muscle mass, it's okay. " No! In fact, some researchers today show that being overweight is harmful to the body, regardless of whether it is muscle or fat.
Muscle consumes much more blood than fat. How does this machine called the heart manage to send blood to this whole thing? Of course, if it's fat it's worse, but muscle is also overweight.
You live poorly for everything. And before I explain this, I clearly remember a doctor I taught for a while, and he said that the human body was not designed to weigh more than 100kg. This is, of course, a body of average height, and I clearly remember how much better I lived when I weighed less than 100kg.
In fact, today I'm working to weigh less than 100kg. Bro, I already weighed 120kg, and I'm working on getting it down. First thing, you will live poorly in the broadest sense of the word.
While people will be able to stand upright, you won't. People will be able to walk, climb stairs, and so on, you won't. Just see a great athlete and you will notice this.
You will see big athletes panting all the time. This whole machine here, heart, lungs, everything is working hard to feed all the shit. And then, there is another issue that for me becomes more important with each passing day.
which is sleep. Guys, I have sleep apnea. I sleep with CPAP.
It's an air compression machine that I put on a mask, and I sleep with that mask, for that air pressure, when I sleep, because of the weight here that closes my throat and doesn't let me breathe, it kind of makes me It suffocates, this air pressure keeps me breathing. And what is the main cause of sleep apnea? Overweight.
As the weight increases, "Ah no, Lalá, but it's muscle mass. " Yes, the neck is full of muscle. When you relax, all these muscles weigh down and close the tube that passes the air.
Start connecting to the stop dimension. Why did I decide to start thinking about this, and today I consider being natural? Lower that weight, lower that muscle volume and have a better quality of life.
But then you can turn around and say to me: "But this is simple to do. Why haven't you done it yet? " And now, we are going to enter, I believe, the most delicate part of the video.
Want to see something? When you think of an athlete, Ramon Dino. Who is Ramon Dino?
The guy's physique certainly comes to mind. Arnold Classic Champion, Mr Olympia runner-up . Who is Zancanelli?
Great Classic Physique athlete, trains really hard, and you can think of any athlete you want. Who are these athletes? And then you will bring his physique.
That is the problem. Identification. And we have reports from old athletes that the guy got sick, he was very big.
He was hospitalized, got sick, almost died. He lost a lot of muscle mass, he left the hospital, the doctor said "You can't use anabolic steroids anymore, because otherwise you'll die. " A few months passed, the guy was the same size as he was before he was hospitalized.
And then he died. Then you'll say "Is the guy an idiot? Didn't he know this was going to happen?
" Rationally, he knew, but he had already identified so deeply with that physique, that who was he without that physique? If you take away Ramon Dino's physique, who is Ramon Dino? If you take away Rafael Brandão's physique, who is Rafael Brandão?
Maybe they don't even know. Perhaps yes. But then, therapy and psychoanalysis work comes in very intensely to get him to stop identifying with the physical, and that's what I've been doing.
Because I identified with the physical. Who was Laérico Refundini? It was that giant personal.
I said the phrase that today I look at and think: "Wow, what stupidity. " "I'd rather die big and early than small and live long. " Look how stupid.
Because I identified very deeply with that. So, you will start to notice that people who have large muscle volumes identify with that. They, in their minds, are that, and then the question I ask is who are they really?
If we take this idea of identification, it is so profound that you will see that people naturally identify with what they do. That's why it's so difficult to answer the question: "who are you? " Possibly, do you know what you would answer?
Your profession, what you do. Who is Laércio Refundini? Because right now I'm being your teacher, being a YouTuber.
These are things that Laércio Refundini does, they are not things that Láercio Refundini is. I'm going to tell you that there is a great psychological dependence on the use of anabolic steroids for this very reason. People identify with that.
It's very dangerous, people. And we can bring it to another area. Well, if you identify with something you do, I don't know, you're a musician, a violinist, you identify with it, you train a lot for it, your life revolves around it.
Human beings are like that. It may bring some harm, but you are a violinist. You live and breathe, that's your life, OK.
Now, the issue with bodybuilding athletes is that they use a lot of drugs, it's bad for their body, it's bad for their physiology. That's where the danger lies. That's why I've been working, I've been working, I continue to work on this in my analyses, which is for me to accept having a smaller physique, and look, I started from 120kg, I'm 104kg today and I feel good about the physique I have, but I keep working my head to reduce it more.
When you saw someone bigger than you, did you have a feeling of "do I have to get as big as this guy? " Did that exist? - Did you feel diminished?
- Not only did it exist, but to a small extent, it still exists, old man. It still bothers me a little. Damn, it's still difficult for me, but in the bodybuilding athlete's mind, especially if the guy is from the Open, he can't accept seeing a guy bigger than him.
And then we ’ll start to get into this idea of muscle volume. What is a bodybuilder? So I will now bring opinions based on my experience of psychoanalysis, etc.
If you stop to think about it, the bodybuilder goes up on a stage to be seen, he goes up on a stage with all the lighting, all the lights, facing him. A stage presupposes being in a high place , and all the people are sitting there watching you. Again, psychoanalytic bias.
The bodybuilder wants to be seen. Again, I'm bringing a bias completely from the psychic area, it has nothing to do with what people normally say. This is the bodybuilding athlete , but there are many people who are big and don't even compete.
Why that? And then I'll talk about myself. After a long , long time, opening my heart to you, I realized that all that muscle volume was just to defend myself.
It was just to create a bit of a barrier to the world, okay? What happens a lot? A big person arrives, the others are intimidated.
Afraid. It was nothing more than a defense. I wanted to defend myself from the world.
I did this with muscle mass. There are people who do this with fat volume too. And another point, too, it's easier to get attention with little muscle volume, like a normal person, or with a lot of muscle volume?
I'm bringing in psychic aspects , OK? So first, I identified with the physique I had. Second, that physique made me defend myself from the world.
Third, it made me seen, because even working on my analyzes and such, I really missed my father's gaze when I was little, so today I realize that I was an athlete because of that, too. I wanted to get the old man's attention. I wanted to go on stage, show that I was f*ck, that I would win a trophy.
Look, daddy. I made you proud. All this, and then you turn to me and say "No, Lalá.
Stop using those things. Get back to your natural body, it's healthier. " Were you able to connect?
It's not a rational question , it's an emotional question, it's much deeper, old man. Could you say then that you wanted to be great because of your insecurities? Exactly.
I didn't want to be big, I became big to defend myself from that. Today, my psychological work is to understand that this is not me, this is what I have. The big person identifies very intensely with that.
If you take that away from her, the person is finished. Does this make sense to you? Do you identify with this?
That you are seen by people? What is recognized for this? Do people talk about you and bring your physique to talk about who you are?
- I'm with him, the biggest of all, the cloud man, Giga. For those of you who have never used it and are thinking about using it, what is the real reason that is taking you down this path? And if you tell me it's aesthetics, you're talking to a psychoanalyst, bro.
And me coming here, in this video, publicly talking about all this is not the easiest thing in the world for me, no. I'm exposing myself to you. I do this for two reasons.
I believe that you hearing this will help you, to some extent. Maybe not even about bodybuilding, training and so on, in life, and secondly, as it's a big challenge for me, it helps me too. Facing all these things, and seeing that today I am bigger than all of that.
But I am bigger than all that. Did you get it? It gives you a little more depth to reflect on things.
As Freud himself said, "Everything is simple. Until you look deeper, then things change. " And here's a video where we'll talk in more depth about exactly that.
We launched a new cutting channel, I want you to go to this channel. Subscribe to the channel, because it helps us a lot, especially in these early days with few subscribers. Go on, give us some morals, subscribe to the channel.
If you're not signed up for this one, take advantage, right?